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juftice Thorpe was hanged for it in the reign of Edward III. By a ftat. 11 Hen. IV. all judges and officers of the king, convicted of bribery, fhall forfeit treble the bribe, be punished at the king's will, and discharged from his service for ever. been held to be a mifdemeanor to offer a fum of money to the first lord of the treafury, for the purpose of obtaining an office or appointment under government, by his intereft and recommendation.

NEGLECT OF DUTY. The negligence of public officers intrufted with the adminiftration of juftice, as fheriffs, coroners, conftables, and the like, makes the offender liable to be fined; and in very notorious cafes will amount to a forfeiture of his office, if it be a beneficial one. Alfo the omitting to apprehend perfons who offer ftolen iron, lead, and other metals to fale, is a mifdemeanor, and punished by a stated fine, or imprisonment, in purfuance of the ftatute 29 Geo. II. c. 30.

EXTORTION. Extortion is an abuse of public justice, which confifts in any officer unlawfully taking by colour of his office, from any man, any money or thing of value, that is not due to him, or more than is due, or before it is due. The punishment is fine and imprisonment, and fometimes a forfeiture of the office.

OPPRESSION. The oppreflion and tyrannical partiality of judges, justices, and other magiftrates, in the administration, and under the colour of their office, when profecuted, either by impeachment in parliament, or by information in the court of king's bench, (according to the rank of the offenders,) is feverely punished with forfeiture of their offices, (either confequential or immediate,) fine, imprisonment, or other difcretionary cenfure, regulated by the nature and aggravation of the offence committed.

CONSPIRACY. Confpirators, in the words of the statute 33 or more properly 21 Edw. I. " be they that do confeder "or bind themfelves by oath, covenant or other alliance, "that every of them fhall aid and bear the other, falfely "and malicioufly to indict, or caufe to indict, or falfely move and maintain pleas; and alfo fuch as caufe "children within age to appeal men of felony, whereby "they are imprisoned and fore grieved; and fuch as retain

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men in the country with liveries or fees for to maintain "their malicious enterprizes;" and this extends as well to the takers as to the givers; and to ftewards and bailiffs of great lords, who by their feigniory, office, or power, undertake to bear or maintain quarrels, pleas, or debates, that concern other parties than fuch as touch the estate of their lords or themfelves. From this definition it feems to follow,

that not only those who actually caufe an innocent man to be indicted, and tried upon the indictment whereupon he he is lawfully acquitted, are confpirators, but thofe alfo who barely confpire to indict a man falfely and maliciously, whether they do any act in profecution of fuch confpiracy or not. Formerly the remedy was by writ of confpiracy, but that is now difufed, and an action on the cafe is frequently brought for a malicious profecution, in which it is incumbent on the plaintiff to fhew that the original fuit, wherefoever inftituted, is at an end; for this purpose he muft produce and prove a copy of the acquittal on record, the fubftance of the evidence, the charges of acquittal, and the circumftances which fhew that the profecution was malicious and without probable cause. But if the profecution was for a mifdemeanor, a copy of the record is not neceffary to be granted by the court to found the action. The confpirators may alfo be indicted at the fuit of the king, and by the ancient common law, if they accufed another of a matter which might touch his life, were to receive what is called the villainous judgment, that is, they were to lose the freedom and franchife of the law, whereby they were difabled to be put upon any jury, or to be fworn as witneffes, or even to appear in perfon in any of the king's courts; and alfo that their houfes, lands, and goods fhould be feized into the king's hands, and their houfes and lands eftreped and wafted, their trees rooted up and rafed, and their bodies imprifoned. In fome books this is faid to have been the proper judgment upon every conviction of confpiracy at the fuit of the king, without any restrictions to fuch as endangered the life of the party. There has been no inftance of the villainous judgment fince the reign of Edward III. The ufual mode of punishment at prefent is by pillory, fine, imprisonment, and furety for good behaviour. The offence is within the jurifdiction of the quarter feffions; and on the motion in arreft of judgment, the defendant muft be perfonally present in court.

LIBELS. A libel is defined a malicious defamation, expreffed either in printing or writing, or by figns, pictures, &c. tending either to blacken the memory of one who is dead, or the reputation of one who is alive, and thereby expofing him to public hatred, contempt, and ridicule. It is termed Libellus famofus feu infamatoria feriptura, and from its pernicious tendency has been held a public offence at common law; for men not being able to bear the having their errors expofed to public view, were found by experience to revenge themfelves on those who made fport with their reputations; from whence arofe duels and breaches of the peace; and hence written fcandal has been held in the greatest deteftation, and has received the utmost difcourage

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difcouragement in the courts of justice. This fpecies of defamation is ufually termed written fcandal, and hereby receives an aggravation, in that it is prefumed to have been entered upon with coolness and deliberation, and to continue longer, and propagate wider and further, than any other fcandal. But it is clearly agreed, that not only written or printed fcandal comes within the notion of a libel, but it may be alfo applied to any defamation what foever, expreffed either by figns or pictures; as, by fixing up a gallows at a man's door, or elsewhere; or by painting him in a fhameful and ignominious manner, as, by expofing a man and his wife by a fkimmington or riding, though a fpecial custom is alleged for fuch practice. And not only charges of a flagrant nature, and which reflect a moral turpitude on the parties, are libellous, but alfo fuch as fet him in a fourrilous, ignominious light; for thefe equally create ill blood, and provoke the parties to acts of revenge, and breaches of the peace. Libels on perfons employed in a public capacity, are faid to receive an aggravation, as they tend to fcandalize the government, by reflecting on those who are intrufted with the adminiftration of public affairs, which not only endangers the public peace, as all other libels do, by ftirring up the parties immediately concerned in it to acts of revenge, but also have a direct tendency to breed in the people a diflike of their governors, and incline them to faction and fedition.

It is alfo agreed, that not only fcandal expreffed in an open and direct manner, but also such as is expreffed in allegory and irony, amounts to a libel; and that the judges are to understand it in the fame manner as others do, without any trained endeavours to find out loop-holes, or to palliate the offence, which in fome meafure would be to encourage fcandal. It has alfo been refolved, that a defamatory writing, expreffing only one or two letters of a name in such a manner that from what goes before, and follows after, it must needs be understood to fignify fuch a perfon in the plain, obvious, and natural construction of the whole, and would be perfect nonfenfe if strained to any other meaning, is as properly a libel as if it had expreffed the whole name at large; for it brings the utmost contempt upon the law, to fuffer its juftice to be eluded by fuch trifling evafions; and it is a ridiculous aciurdity to fay, that a writing which is understood by the meanest capacity, cannot poffibly be understood by judge or jury. Obscene books are punishable as libels, and fo are books reflecting upon christianity.

A perfon complaining of a libel, may bring his action for damages, or may indict, or move the court of king's bench for a criminal information. In the latter mode of proceeding,

it is neceffary, in order to induce the court to interpofe its extraordinary jurifdiction, that the party should state in his affidavit, that the allegations complained of are falfe. In an indictment or criminal profecution for a libel, the party cannot justify that the contents thereof are true, or that the perfon upon whom it is made had a bad reputation; fince the greater appearance there is of truth in any malicious invective, fo much the more provoking it is; for as lord Coke obferves, in a fettled state of government the party grieved ought to complain for every injury done him, in the ordinary courfe of law, and not by any means to revenge himfelf by the odious courfe of libelling or otherwife. Alfo, it seems now fettled, that no fcandal in writing is any more justifiable in a civil action brought by the party to vindicate the injury done him, than in an indictment or information at the fuit of the crown; for though, in actions for words, the law, through compassion, admits the truth of the charge to be pleaded as a juftification, yet this tenderness is not to be extended to written scandal, in which the author acts with more coolnefs; and deliberation gives the fcandal a more durable ftamp, and propagates it wider and further; whereas in words, men often in a heat and paffion fay things which they are afterwards afhamed of, and though they seem to act with deliberation, yet the fcandal fooner dies away and is forgotten; and therefore, from the greater degree of mischief and malice attending the one than the other, though the law allows the party to juftify in an action for words, yet it does not for written fcandal; whence it follows, that the only favour truth affords in fuch a cafe is, that it may be fhewn in mitigation of damages in an action, and of the fine upon an indictment or information.

It had frequently been determined by the court of king's bench, that the only queftions for the confideration of the jury, in criminal profecutions for libels, were the fact of publication, and the truth of the inuendos, that is, the truth of the meaning and fenfe of the paffages of the libel, as ftated and averred in the record, and that the judge or court alone was competent to determine whether the fubject of the publication was or was not a libel. But the legality of this doctrine having been much controverted, the 32 Geo. III. c. 60. was pafled, intituled, "an "act to remove doubts refpecting the functions of juries in "cafes of libels." It declares and enacts, that on every trial of an indictment or information for a libel, the jury may give a general verdict of guilty or not guilty, upon the whole matter in iflue, and shall not be required or directed by the judge, to find the defendant guilty, merely on the proof of the publication of the paper charged to be a libel, and of the fenfe afcribed to

it in the record. But the ftatute provides, that the judge may give his opinion to the jury refpecting the matter in iffue, and the jury may at their difcretion, as in other cafes, find a special verdict, and the defendant, if convicted, may move the court, as before the statute, in arreft of judgment. But this ftatute does not express that the truth of the scandal fhall be a defence, and is wholly filent as to actions of fcandalum magnatum, or for a libel.

Every perfon convicted of a libel must be the contriver, procurer, or publisher.

The punishment for a libel, if the defendant is convicted on an indictment or information, is by fine and corporal punishment, at the difcretion of the court; and when a perfon is brought up to receive judgment for a libel, his conduct, fubfequent to his conviction, may be taken into confideration either by way of aggravation, or mitigation of the punishment.

These are the chief offences for which the law of England has provided in the way of prevention or punishment. It remains only to give fome account of various circumstances incident to the condition, the trial, and the sentence of malefactors.

ARRESTS. All perfons without diftinction are equally liable to arrest in all criminal cafes; but no man is to be arrested, unless charged with such a crime, as will at least justify holding him to bail, when taken. In general, an arrest may be made four ways: 1. By warrant. 2. By an officer without a warrant. 3. By a private perfon alfo without a warrant. By hue and cry.

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A warrant may be granted in extraordinary cafes by the privy council, or fecretaries of ftate; but ordinarily by juftices of the peace; their power extends undoubtedly to all treafons, felonies, and breaches of the peace; and alfo to all fuch offences as they have power to punish by statute. The warrant ought to be under the hand and feal of the juftice, fhould fet forth the time and place of making, and the cause for which it is made, and fhould be directed to the conftable, or other peace officer, (or, it may be to any private perfon by name,) requiring him to bring the party either generally before any juftice of the peace for the county, or only before the juftice who granted it; the warrant in the latter cafe being called a special warrant. general warrant to apprehend all perfons fufpected, without naming or particularly defcribing any one in particular, is illegal and void for its uncertainty; and a warrant to apprehend all perfons guilty of a crime therein fpecified, is no legal warrant. A warrant from the chief or other justice of the court of king's bench extends all over the kingdom: and is tefted or dated England,

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